By Lowell Hegewood, Ph.D
“No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.” ––Douglas MacArthur 
 
James Carville’s legendary jab at President Bush, “It’s the economy, stupid,” may have helped decide the presidency in favor of Bill Clinton in 1992 and would appear to have major implications in 2012 given the sad state of national economic affairs. Yes, the national debt is quadruple what it was in 1992. Yes, unemployment is double compared to just 10 years ago. Yes, “taxmaggedon” might be right around the corner. However, for all Americans, especially Christians, this year’s presidential election is about so much more. The issue most distorted by political media, ridiculed by popular culture, and at times ignored by both Republicans and Democrats has really become an ugly wound in the body politic. Its “bleeding” affects all Americans, and for Christians, its cause is largely self-inflicted. Please read on! 
A Self-Inflicted Wound 
It is not an exaggeration that our government is pursuing policies more hostile to Christians than at any time in our country’s history. It is also not a coincidence that these irreligious policies coincide with the steady retreat of Christians from civic responsibility. Christian voter turnout actually declined 40% between 1992-2004. In 2000 only 15,000,000 out of 60,000,000 evangelical Christians voted. In 2008 an estimated 24,000,000 or 40% of Christians were not even registered to vote. In the Presidential election of that year, the outcome in Missouri was decided by 3,903 votes and in this state over 102,000 Christians were not registered. In North Carolina the eventual winner won by 14,177 votes––281, 212 Christians were not registered. Incredibly, more Americans vote on “American Idol” than in presidential primaries!1 
The Bleeding Continues 
If apathy “wins” elections, Christians have paid a high price for it since 2008. Consider: 

  • In January 2009 the White House revoked conscience protections for pro-life health care workers who refuse to participate in medical activities that violate their religious beliefs.2 
  • Despite pleas from military chaplains, the White House ended the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the military regarding homosexuality, forcing chaplains to choose between their 1st Amendment rights or losing chances for promotion.3 
  • In May 2012 the White House announced it was opposing legislation to protect conscience rights of military chaplains who do not wish to perform same-sex marriages.4 
  • In February 2012 the White House forgave student loans in exchange for public service, but announced it would no longer forgive student loans if the public service was related to religion.5 
  • In February 2011 the Administration urged passage of a non-discrimination law that does not contain hiring protections for religious groups, forcing religious organizations to hire according to federal mandates, even if such mandates about sexual orientation and “gender identity” violate their religious beliefs.6 
  • The Patient May Die Yet, how often do you hear the news media warn that government policies such as these undermine religious freedom? A case in point is the abortion-contraception mandates in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act scheduled to take effect soon that require organizations, faith-based or not, to offer insurance coverage for abortion inducing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization regardless of the employer moral and religious objections. Responding to widespread protest from religious organizations, President Obama eventually offered a narrow exemption to churches, but not religiously-affiliated hospitals, colleges, charities and other non-profits. While political media and pro-abortion pundits falsely characterized the controversy as a “war” on women and sexual freedom, the White House is establishing the chilling precedent that churches are subordinate to the state, in that they can have a certain range of beliefs as long as they keep them within the church walls rather than spread them through Christian-based hospitals, schools, or crisis pregnancy centers.7 This thinly veiled attempt to keep moral and religious values out of public life puts religious freedom at crossroads in America as have Administration efforts to secularize hiring practices of churches and faith-based schools. As one college president warned, “If one presidential administration can override our religious purpose and use religious organizations to advance policies that undercut our values, then surely another can…each time invoking some concept of the public will or public good, with the result these organizations become mere tools for the exercise of government power, morally subservient to the state…”8 In creating a “religious caste system” in which only those considered sufficiently “religious” are granted exemptions, the proverbial “slippery slope” becomes a death trap for religious liberty. Already, Ave Maria University, a Catholic college in Florida, has dropped student health care coverage, citing moral objections and increased premium costs.9 
    The Road to Tyranny 
    Despite pleas from military chaplains, the White House ended the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the military regarding homosexuality, forcing chaplains to choose between their 1st Amendment rights or losing chances for promotion.3  In May 2012 the White House announced it was opposing legislation to protect conscience rights of military chaplains who do not wish to perform same-sex marriages.4 For all Americans, Christians or otherwise, when religious freedom is dismantled, it is a certainty that other liberties will be next. Romans 13:1-4 has been called the most influential Scripture in all Western civilization, and most definitely to the infant United States. Just as God established government as a servant of the people with the power to defend and protect them, Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote that people were not created by God to serve the government. Instead, the government was to serve man by protecting three God-given, and therefore, unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Conversely, without God, the highest law-giver rights are not “unalienable,” but are based on whatever the government deems legal. In other words, if the secular state becomes the highest moral authority, the government decides what values a church can have and what principles a Christian can express in public. Unalienable rights are no longer inseparable gifts from God, but are provided by the state and are, consequently, temporal. This is why the authors of this country’s freedom documents, the “Founding Fathers,” wrote the religious clauses of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, which prevent the federal government from establishing both a national denomination and prohibiting the free exercise of religious beliefs. Ultimately, without a Christian vision of the human person, our political life is doomed to become the mere exercise of power subject to the whim of a monarch, dictator, or president.10 
    Obscurity Is Not an Option 
    Christians need to rediscover the Christian roots of American freedom, re-engage in civil stewardship from a Biblical perspective, and, like the apostle Paul, be bold in asserting their constitutional rights. Thousands of Americans already are. Just as Paul insisted on his constitutional rights as a Roman citizen against a legal establishment steeped in paganism, the growth of faith-based legal organizations like the Alliance Defense Fund, the American Center for Law and Justice, and the Rutherford Institute are defending the religious liberties of those threatened by the anti-Christian bias clearly evident in our government and society. Their many church/state victories in the last fifteen years have inspired legislative ones too. In 2007, Texas became the first state to adopt the School Children’s Religious Liberties Act to give equal protection, freedom, and opportunity to students of faith attending public schools, including free discussion of religious beliefs and the use of religious texts in assignments. In May 2012 Arizona became the 6th state to allow high schools to offer a Bible-related course. Of course, grass roots victories such as these can and will be reversed if the majority of Christians continue to retreat from civic and moral responsibility. To be sure, Christians cannot change a culture for Christ by just using worldly means such as politics. Real cultural change comes from the inside. 
    But it is also true that American political and social institutions once respected and even reflected Christian values because Christians lived and voted in such a way that shaped those institutions. They also understood the Biblical basis of American constitutional law and, like the apostle Paul, were quick to defend their constitutional rights. To do otherwise, to abandon civil stewardship and ignore Christ’s admonition to be “salt and light” in society is to ignore God’s warning that “when the righteous rule the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule the people mourn” (Proverbs 29:2). Obviously, the righteous cannot rule unless Christians help to elect them, and without Christian values in government we subject ourselves to devious, immoral leaders who will bring hardships on “we the people.” Yes, the election of 2012 will be pivotal, but the headline-grabbing issues like the economy and health care belie the most important ones.11 
     
    Note: The word Christian is used in a general sense in this article to mean all religionists in Christendom, not necessarily Christians in the New Testament sense. 
    Lowell Hagewood has taught history and political science in Nashville for 37 years. 
      
     
    Endnotes 
     

    1. 1.http://www.championthevote.com
    2. 2.Aliza Marcus, “Obama to Lift ‘Conscience’ Rule for Health Care Workers,” Bloomberg, February 27, 2009.
    3. 3.Edward Lee Pitts, “Speaking Out,” World,July 17, 2012, 41-43. 
    4. 4.Patrick Goodenough, “White House ‘Strongly Objects’ to Legislation Protecting Military Chaplains From Doing Same-Sex Weddings or Being Forced to Act Against Conscience,” cnsnews.com, May 16, 2012.
    5. 5.Audrey Hudson, “Obama Administration Rejects Religion Service for Student Loan Forgiveness,” Human Events, February 15, 2012.
    6. 6.Family Research Council, Washington Update,June 12, 2012. 
    7. 7.Edward Lee Pitts, “Faith Based Farce,” World,April 7, 2012, 13; Heritage Foundation, “Protecting Religious Freedom From Obamacare,” June 25, 2012, heritage.lorg/2012/06/25/morning-bell-protecting-religious-liberty-from-obamacare/ 

     

    1. 8.Heritage Foundation, “Catholic Organizations Sue to Stop Obamacare’s Religious Liberty Violations,” May 23, 2012, heritage.org/2012/05/23/morning-bell-catholic-organizations sue/
    2. 9.“Catholic Organizations Across the Country File Suit Against Contraceptive Mandate,” May 21, 2012, http: www.foxnews.com
    3. 10.Benjamin Hart, Faith and Freedom: The Christian Roots of American Liberty(1988), 14-16; Marcello Pera, Why We Must Call Ourselves Christians: The Religious Roots of Free Societies (2008), 6. 
    4. 11.Ed Vitagliano, “Blurring the Message,” AFA Journal, vol. 31, no. 3, 2007, 12-13; Don Wildmon, Speechless: Silencing the Christians(2009), 51; “Dispatches,” World, May 19, 2012,